That evening, after working out and returning to the dorm, Liu Zhu did the same thing he'd done for the past few days: he showered, then flopped onto his bed and cried out in pain, not even in the mood to play games. Nine times out of ten, anyone who didn't know the situation would have thought his ass had been brutally violated.
Speaking of which, aside from Zhao Yuan, everyone else on the basketball team had been aching all over for days. They could barely walk, looking for all the world like they'd been thoroughly worked over. But what could they expect when they all overestimated their own abilities and tried to keep up with Zhao Yuan's training regimen? That was an intensity they couldn't match even if their lives depended on it!
"Hey, Zhao Yuan, are you not the least bit tired? You don't feel sore at all?" Liu Zhu asked after groaning on his bed for a while.
"How could that be? Of course I'm tired, too. I'm just better at pushing through it," Zhao Yuan replied.
"Yeah, right!" Liu Zhu rolled his eyes.
Zhao Yuan smiled but didn't answer. After washing his soaked basketball uniform and hanging it up to dry, he didn't immediately light the Soul-Stabilizing Incense and activate his Concentration Technique to study as he had been. Instead, he turned to Liu Zhu and said, "Hey, are you using your computer tonight? If not, mind if I borrow it?"
"Go ahead." Liu Zhu was still sprawled on the bed, groaning weakly. "I feel like a total wreck right now. I can't even lift a finger, so how could I possibly use a computer?"
After getting the go-ahead, Zhao Yuan brought over Liu Zhu's laptop.
Over the past few days, he had already learned everything in the Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine about Qi and Blood, the zang-fu organs, and the meridians. Before he moved on to studying the causes and mechanisms of disease, he planned to do what he'd done before: hit the school forum's medical section and blitz through some practice questions to properly consolidate his knowledge.
He opened the school forum and logged into his account, "The Man Who Wants to Be a Witch Doctor." Before he could even search for any questions, he saw a large, red "N" flashing next to his inbox.
'What's this? My account is brand new, just a few days old. How could I have private messages? And a whole bunch of them, too. Can't be spam, can it?' Zhao Yuan muttered. He casually clicked open his inbox and was greeted by several pages of private messages filling it to the brim. A quick scan revealed they were mostly things like, "Great God, I want to get to know you!", "Great God, please add me as a friend!", and "Master, what's your WeChat ID?"
These messages were all from people on the school forums who had seen his thread blitzing the practice questions. Unfortunately, Zhao Yuan rarely frequented the forums, so he had no idea that on top of causing a stir in the chat section, he had also become a Great God in the medical section.
He assumed it was all just ads and spam, so he nonchalantly clicked "Empty Inbox," checked the box for "Block messages from strangers," and grumbled, "What is wrong with the forum admins? How can they just let these spammers run rampant? They're completely useless!"
After exiting his inbox, Zhao Yuan opened the search engine and typed in some keywords, searching for the practice questions he needed.
Soon, a huge number of questions related to Qi and Blood, the zang-fu organs, and meridians filled the screen. But just as he was about to begin, his phone rang. He picked it up and saw it was a call from Fang Yi, the owner of Hundred Herbs Hall.
Resigned, Zhao Yuan had to pause his practice session, close the laptop, and walk out onto the dorm balcony to take the call.
"Brother Fang, what's up?" Zhao Yuan asked after answering.
Over the phone, Fang Yi's voice was electric. "Zhao Yuan, don't call me 'Brother'! I should be the one calling you that! My dear Brother Zhao, I have just one question: when can you get me the next batch of Soul-Stabilizing Incense?"
Ever since Zhao Yuan had delivered six boxes of Soul-Stabilizing Incense last Sunday, there had been radio silence. At first, Fang Yi wasn't worried and just carried on with his promotions as planned. The six people who had bought the incense all became die-hard fans after experiencing its miraculous effects and eagerly helped spread the word, allowing the Soul-Stabilizing Incense's reputation to quickly circulate through the business circles of Rongcheng City. But what truly made the Soul-Stabilizing Incense a massive hit were three recent incidents.
The first incident involved an average construction company that, on the strength of a proposal of exceptionally high quality, beat out numerous competitors many times more powerful than them to win the bid for a municipal project worth over a billion.
Their proposal received unanimous praise from the relevant experts and was hailed as the best in nearly thirty years. When questioned by reporters and industry peers, the company's owner revealed that their ability to produce such a high-quality proposal was entirely thanks to the Soul-Stabilizing Incense! The CEO of that company was, in fact, one of the first people to purchase it. After buying the incense, he hadn't kept it for himself. Instead, he brought it to the office and lit it during meetings and late-night work sessions, sharing it with his employees. To his surprise, it led to this miraculous outcome!
The second incident involved a man who had suffered from impotence for many years. After using Soul-Stabilizing Incense, not only did he regain his masculine vigor, but he even got his wife pregnant, fulfilling his long-held desire for a child that had, until then, been unattainable.
To show his gratitude, the man not only raved about the miraculous benefits of Soul-Stabilizing Incense on his social media but also had a custom silk banner delivered to Fang Yi. The only thing was, the inscription on the banner was rather dumbfounding: "Thank you, Soul-Stabilizing Incense, for getting my wife pregnant."
Anyone who didn't know the context would see it and think "Soul-Stabilizing Incense" was a person who had done something to his wifeβ¦
As for the third incident, someone who bought the Soul-Stabilizing Incense gave it to their child, a high school senior. In just a few days, his child, whose academic performance had always been near the bottom of the class, suddenly had a breakthrough, as if their mind had been opened, and their grades started soaring!
In a progress test just yesterday, the kid amazingly broke into the top twenty in class and ranked in the two-hundreds for the entire grade. While that ranking might not seem spectacular, don't forget that this kid used to be among the bottom few in their class and ranked below one-thousandth for the grade. That rate of improvement was staggering!
What's more, with the help of Soul-Stabilizing Incense, it was clear the student's grades wouldn't stop improving there. It perfectly embodied the famous advertising slogan: "Ever since I started using Soul-Stabilizing Incense, my mom doesn't have to worry about my studies anymore!"
Who doesn't want to land big deals? Who doesn't want to be healthy and full of vigor forever? Who doesn't want their children to be successful and get good grades?
With these three enviable success stories, public demand exploded in an instant! The Soul-Stabilizing Incense became an overnight sensation, a total blockbuster! As its sole distributor, Fang Yi's phone had been ringing off the hook for the past two days. Even more people were showing up at his shop in person, demanding to buy the Soul-Stabilizing Incense.
The problem was, he didn't have a single new box of Soul-Stabilizing Incense in stock!
After fending off the masses for two days, Fang Yi finally reached his breaking point. His only choice was to call Zhao Yuan to plead for more stock and beg for rescue.